VIDEO: New Giants HC Joe Judge Was Once Forced to Build Freddie Kitchens a Swing Set During Bye Week
By Brendan Balsamo
After losing out on the Matt Rhule sweepstakes to the Carolina Panthers, Dave Gettleman and the New York Giants turned to New England Patriots' wide receiver coach Joe Judge. After the hire, an old video emerged of the new head coach sharing a hilarious anecdote about his weirdest coaching experience. His just so happens to have involved Freddie Kitchens and... building a swing set.
From last year's Super Bowl media day. @NCoitABC6 & I were working on a story asking coaches what the strangest task they've ever been asked to do was.
— Ian Steele (@ISteeleABC6) January 7, 2020
For Giants HC Joe Judge it was building a swing set for Freddie Kitchens' kids...on a bye week.
Brutal. Whatever it takes! pic.twitter.com/u89Z4VmT47
While a Graduate Assistant at Mississippi State in the early 2000's, Judge worked under Kitchens, who was the tight end coach. On their bye week, Kitchens made Judge and another employee build a swing set for his daughters, and based on Judge's description, it was no small task.
Yes, this all occurred on a bye week. But at the very least, it shows he's a diligent and hard worker.
The Giants did put a call in to Bill Belichick about their head coach vacancy... but it wasn't to lure him back to NY. I'm told Bill gave a glowing recommendation to the Giants on Joe Judge. That carried a lot of weight.
— Tom Rock (@TomRock_Newsday) January 7, 2020
Being mentored by Bill Belichick is an inherent advantage for any football coach, and Judge will hope to take all he's learned from his former mentor and apply it to his new gig.
Fortunately, this job won't require Judge to build any swing sets.